The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce has announced a name change for the annual art show held in February.

The Chamber offers two art shows each year; the Great Fair in February and the Fountain Festival of Fine Arts & Crafts in November. Starting in 2020, they will both be called the “Fountain Festival of Fine Arts & Crafts,” but will be designated by the spring and fall seasons.

According to an announcement from the Chamber, the idea came about after seeing the two names start to merge into different versions of both titles. A strong majority of calls and emails from attendees and participating artists referred to the shows with improper names so, to create stronger branding and event recognition, organizers decided to settle the shows under the same naming umbrella.

Marketing Manager for the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce, Paige Lorentzen, said she believes this decision to make a fall and spring Fountain Festival will create event awareness and help to harness strong brand recognition for the art shows, no matter what time of year it is. Many other art shows in the area and across the country do the same thing, making this a common practice on the art show circuit.

The choice to select the Fountain Festival of Fine Arts & Crafts over the Great Fair was mostly to do with having the word “Fountain” in the name. This helps to put a location to the event and many people across the state and beyond know the Fountain Festival is held in Fountain Hills, Lorentzen explained. Additionally, the Great Fair used to offer carnival rides, which used to make the name “Great Fair” make sense. Now that the carnival rides have been retired for years, “Great Fair” can be confusing.

According to the Chamber, this decision to make one name for both art shows was supported by the late Special Events Manager, Sharon Morgan. Before her passing in Dec. 2019, she showed strong support to use the Fountain Festival of Fine Arts & Crafts for both events and believed it would benefit the event in the long run.